The present invention relates to drive circuits in general and, more particularly, to a drive circuit that is responsive to an input AC voltage for providing a switch actuated drive signal to a load circuit such as, a solenoid coil without the deleterious effect of switch contact bounce.
Various drive circuits for actuating electrically operated stapling devices have been disclosed in the art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,333,019 and 4,492,880 disclose such circuits. Drive circuits for electric staplers and the like should provide a high degree of immunity from false actuations that can be produced by noise and other pulses in the AC line voltage. In addition, such drive circuits should prevent accidental firings that may result from switch bounce and other artifacts.
It is accordingly a general object of the present invention to provide an improved driver circuit.
It is a specific object of the invention to provide an improved driver circuit for use with an electric stapler.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a driver circuit that is responsive to an input AC voltage to generate a variable power drive signal for a load circuit, such as, a solenoid coil in response to the actuation of a switch.
It is another object of the invention to provide a variable power driver circuit that is independent of the frequency of the input AC voltage.
It is still another object of the invention to provide a driver circuit that provides switch bounce rejection for one full cycle of the input AC voltage.
It is still another object of the invention to provide an easily adjustable variable power driver circuit for a solenoid coil.